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The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue dates from 1811 and this is probably the only full, uncensored and searchable
version of this dictionary on the internet. All the original crudities have been restored and it offers an
interesting perspective on Common English from the time of the Regency and Jane Austen.
Select a letter or type a word and click Find. Searches are automatically wild-carded and clicking on words in the first column will look for all occurrences of that word, or related word.
Example:You click A and one of the results is ARSE. If you now click on ARSE the full list of related content will be displayed.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Select a letter or type a word and click Find. Searches are automatically wild-carded and clicking on words in the first column will look for all occurrences of that word, or related word.
Example:You click A and one of the results is ARSE. If you now click on ARSE the full list of related content will be displayed.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Entries releated to FLY
| BARNABY | An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines, Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly, And make the world dance Barnaby. | |
| BEGGAR'S BULLETS | Stones. The beggar's bullets began to fly, i.e. they began to throw stones. | |
| BLACK FLY | The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e. the parson who takes tithe of the harvest. | |
| BLUE PIGEONS | Thieves who steal lead off houses and churches. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off houses or churches. | |
| BUM TRAP | A sheriff's officer who arrests debtors. Ware hawke! the bum traps are fly to our panney; keep a good look out, the bailiffs know where our house is situated. | |
| BURR | A hanger on, or dependant; an allusion to the field burrs, which are not easily got rid of. Also the Northumbrian pronunciation: the people of that country, but chiefly about Newcastle and Morpeth, are said to have a burr in their throats, particularly called the Newcastle burr. | |
| CAT CALL | A kind of whistle, chiefly used at theatres, to interrupt the actors, and damn a new piece. It derives its name from one of its sounds, which greatly resembles the modulation of an intriguing boar cat. | |
| CHEESE IT | Be silent, be quiet, don't do it. Cheese it, the coves are fly; be silent, the people understand our discourse. | |
| CLACK | A tongue, chiefly applied to women; a simile drawn from the clack of a water-mill. | |
| COW ITCH | The product of a sort of bean, which excites an insufferable itching, used chiefly for playing tricks. | |
| CUCUMBERS | Taylors, who are jocularly said to subsist, during the summer, chiefly on cucumbers. | |
| DARKEE | A dark lanthorn used by housebreakers. Stow the darkee, and bolt, the cove of the crib is fly; hide the dark lanthorn, and run away, the master of the house knows that we are here. | |
| DO OVER | Carries the same meaning, but is not so briefly expressed: the former having received the polish of the present times. | |
| ESSEX LION | A calf; Essex being famous for calves, and chiefly supplying the London markets. | |
| FALLALLS | Ornaments, chiefly women's, such as ribands, necklaces, etc. | |
| FLOURISH | To take a flourish; to enjoy a woman in a hasty manner, to take a flyer. See FLYER. | |
| FLY | Knowing. Acquainted with another's meaning or proceeding. The rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about. | |
| FLY | A waggon. | |
| FLY SLICERS | Life-guard men, from their sitting on horseback, under an arch, where they are frequently observed to drive away flies with their swords. | |
| FLY-BY-NIGHT | You old fly-by-night; an ancient term of reproach to an old woman, signifying that she was a witch, and alluding to the nocturnal excursions attributed to witches, who were supposed to fly abroad to their meetings, mounted on brooms. | |
| FLY-FLAPPED | Whipt in the stocks, or at the cart's tail. | |
| FLYER | To take a flyer; to enjoy a woman with her clothes on, or without going to bed. | |
| FLYERS | Shoes. | |
| FLYING CAMPS | Beggars plying in a body at funerals. | |
| FLYING GIGGERS | Turnpike gates. | |
| FLYING HOUSE | A lock in wrestling, by which he who uses it throws his adversary over his head. | |
| FLYING PASTY | Shit wrapped in paper and thrown over a neighbour's wall. | |
| FLYING PORTERS | Cheats who obtain money by pretending to persons who have been lately robbed, that they may come from a place or party where, and from whom, they may receive information respecting the goods stolen from them, and demand payment as porters. | |
| FLYING STATIONERS | Ballad-singers and hawkers of penny histories. | |
| FLYMSEY | A bank note. | |
| GAG | An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance. | |
| GOREE | Money, chiefly gold: perhaps from the traffic carried on at that place, which is chiefly for gold dust. | |
| HIGH FLYERS | Tories, Jacobites. | |
| LIGHT-HEELED | Swift in running. A light-heeled wench; one who is apt, by the flying up of her heels, to fall flat on her back, a willing wench. | |
| MAHOMETAN GRUEL | Coffee: because formerly used chiefly by the Turks. | |
| MAY BEES | May bees don't fly all the year long; an answer to any one who prefaces a proposition with, It may be. | |
| PIGEON | A weak silly fellow easily imposed on. To pigeon; to cheat. To milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities, to be put to shifts for want of money. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church. | |
| PILL, or PEELE GARLICK | Said originally to mean one whose skin or hair had fallen off from some disease, chiefly the venereal one; but now commonly used by persons speaking of themselves: as, there stood poor pill garlick: i.e. there stood I. | |
| PISS POT HALL | A house at Clapton, near Hackney, built by a potter chiefly out of the profits of chamber pots, in the bottom of which the portrait of Dr. Sacheverel was depicted. | |
| PORRIDGE ISLAND | An alley leading from St. Martin's church-yard to Round-court, chiefly inhabited by cooks, who cut off ready-dressed meat of all sorts, and also sell soup. | |
| QUEER BAIL | Insolvent sharpers, who make a profession of bailing persons arrested: they are generally styled Jew bail, from that branch of business being chiefly carried on by the sons of Judah. The lowest sort of these, who borrow or hire clothes to appear in, are called Mounters, from their mounting particular dresses suitable to the occasion. | |
| READER MERCHANTS | Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews, who ply about the Bank to steal the pocket-books of persons who have just received their dividends there. | |
| RUMP | To rump any one; to turn the back to him: an evolution sometimes used at court. Rump and a dozen; a rump of beef and a dozen of claret; an Irish wager, called also buttock and trimmings. Rump and kidney men; fiddlers that play at feasts, fairs, weddings, etc. and live chiefly on the remnants. | |
| SCOUR | To scour or score off; to run away: perhaps from SCORE; i.e. full speed, or as fast as legs would carry one. Also to wear: chiefly applied to irons, fetters, or handcuffs, because wearing scours them. He will scour the darbies; he will be in fetters. To scour the cramp ring; to wear bolts or fetters, from which, as well as from coffin hinges, rings supposed to prevent the cramp are made. | |
| SWEATING | A mode of diminishing the gold coin, practiced chiefly by the Jews, who corrode it with aqua regia. Sweating was also a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century, who styled themselves Mohocks: these gentlemen lay in wait to surprise some person late in the night, when surrouding him, they with their swords pricked him in the posteriors, which obliged him to be constantly turning round; this they continued till they thought him sufficiently sweated. | |